Description

PixelJunk Racers is top-down single screen racing game made to resemble a real-life slot car racing game. Controls consist of controlling acceleration, switching between the five available lanes and using the horn. The game contains ten tracks that can be played in any of the sixteen race variants. The gameplay is very fast and requires quick reflexes. The goal is to achieve a high score or to complete the objective for the race variant. Medals are provided to rate the performance.

The four main game modes are solo tournament, quick race, party races (a mix of race variants for up to seven offline players simultaneously) and score attack. Each race variant has three difficulty levels. Once the sixteenth race variant has been unlocked, sixteen turbo variants are provided. They are identical to the main race variants, but at a faster speed.

In Balloon Burst a giant balloon inflates behind your car at the start of the race. When it explodes it launches the car at a high speed and you need to evade a number of stationary cars that way.

In Bipolar or Bust! the track is filled with white and black cars. Your car moves at a fixed speed. You can 'eat' the white cars while holding acceleration and black cars when releasing it.

In Buddy Race you complete a number of laps before time runs out by staying close a partner as the proximity provides a speed boost for both.

In Combo Racers you need to overtake cars to reach first place before time runs out.

In Death Race you have a limited amount of time to destroy all cars on the track by bumping into them.

Escape is a survival race where you need to dodge other cars that are on fire.

Fireball Frenzy is similar but you have to overtake a number of cars to turn into a blazing fireball and complete a number of laps that way.

In Hot Pursuit you chase a rival car on a track with many neutral cars and smash into it to destroy it before time runs out.

In Hot Rods you need to finish the race and you have a faster cars than your opponents, but crashes slow it down significantly.

In The Zone is a race variant where you need to maintain speed carefully to remain in the highlighted zone behind a car to destroy it.

Rival Racers is a one-on-one race on a track filled with many neutral cars.

In Speed Monkey you gradually gain speed by overtaking cars without hitting them.

In Student Drivers you need to overtake a number of cars that swerve regularly before time runs out.

Sudden Death is a race where a single crash immediately ends the race.

Sunday Drivers fills the track with tight packs of neutral cars. The player needs to navigate very carefully to get past them.

In The Munchies you need to maintain speed by constantly crashing into cars, making them explode.

On 10th August 2010 an expansion called PixelJunk Racers 2nd Lap was released. It replaces the base game, changes the title and is provided for free for all existing owners of the original game. The difficulty level is toned down and it introduces a ghost attack mode with leaderboards where players compete against ghosts of other players for the best times. It also adds trophies to the game.